Re: USB Install Fails, Complains about CD-ROM

I was burned once by this sort of Foolishness. (Some USB Drives even have "Blinky Lights", to tell when Activity occurs). I do the File Copy, it comes back to a prompt right away. But then, when I say "sync", it shows how slow Access is, to writing to some of these USB Drives.

Never pull out a USB, until you are *SURE* it is safe to do so. That was a good lesson for me!

After doing the cp or dd to write the .iso to the USB, do you do a “sync” before you eject it? Writing to a USB stick can seem to go quite fast, but that’s because of buffering. Often it takes quite a while (a minute or more for a very big write on a machine with plenty of RAM) to clear the buffers and write thru to permanent media.

Just a thought,
Rick

PS: Here’s what I use to write a .iso file to a USB stick:
dd if=/debian-live-9.4.0-amd64-mate.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1M conv=fsync status=progress
sync
eject /dev/sdc
Hope it helps!

> Hi Kent,
>
> It's much easier to write the image to the USB stick using the dd command instead:
>
> # dd if=debian-9.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=1M
>
> This should give you a working install stick.
>
> --Robert
>
>
> On Fri, May 11, 2018, 12:12 Kent West <westk@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have a Dell Latitude E7250 laptop. I'm trying to install Debian to it using a USB stick.
>
> I've tried both of these .ISOs:
>
> debian-9.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
> debian-buster-DI-alpha2-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso
>
> I used my desktop Debian box to download these via Firefox from https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/
>
> I inserted a USB stick, and ran:
>
> # sudo cp debian-9.4.0-amd64-xfce-CD-1.iso /dev/sdc
>
> as per the instructions at https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#write-usb
>
> I then ejected the USB stick from my desktop Debian box, and inserted it into the laptop, and then booted the laptop to the USB stick.
>
> The graphical install does not seem to recognize the trackpad (which is recognized in the laptop's EFI firmware settings, so I know it works), but that's a minor issue, as I can tinker with that later, and just use the keyboard to install for now.
>
> The real problem is that after going through the first three or four screens, the install halts, complaining about not being able to read the CD-ROM.
>
> Googling the issue suggested a couple of possible fixes, but I've had no success yet.
>
> Any help?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> --
> Kent West <")))><
> Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com